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Regents OK new nursing facility

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By MELISSA LEE / Lincoln Journal Star

Friday, Sep 05, 2008 - 06:40:20 pm CDT

The University of Nebraska Board of Regents on Friday approved construction of a $17.5 million facility to house a new NU Medical Center College of Nursing Lincoln division.

The facility will help Nebraska fight back against the nursing shortage that’s plaguing the nation, university leaders said.

Construction of the building, to be located at 40th and Holdrege streets on the University of Nebraska-Lincoln East Campus, is scheduled to begin in October 2010 and end in February 2012.

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That day can’t come soon enough for the College of Nursing’s Lincoln division, whose current home is in rented space in the Commerce Court building downtown.

Only about 80 students are admitted to the Lincoln division every year — less than half the number of qualified applicants.

The new facility will boast 80 percent more space, allowing for more classrooms, labs and student-faculty interaction areas. The facility also will give nursing students and faculty an on-campus home, something they’ve lacked since moving to Commerce Court about three years ago.

“I am thrilled at the prospect of proper space for our Lincoln division,” College of Nursing Dean Virginia Tilden said in a news release. “The division is most deserving of a new building because of its vital role in preparing the nursing workforce for the surrounding area, including future faculty for Nebraska’s nursing schools.

“This facility will let us strategically expand enrollments and programs and will give faculty and students the 21st-century teaching, learning and research environment they deserve.”

The nursing shortage in Nebraska and elsewhere is expected to worsen in the coming years as current nurses retire and Baby Boomers age and require more medical care.

And more than half of nursing faculty in Nebraska are over age 50, according to Diane Brage Hudson, acting assistant dean of the College of Nursing Lincoln division.

By 2020, Nebraska could be facing a deficit of nearly 4,000 registered nurses.

In addition to Lincoln, the College of Nursing already has divisions in Omaha, Kearney and Scottsbluff. Another nursing division, a partnership between UNMC and Northeast Community College, is in the works in Norfolk.

* Also Friday, the Board of Regents approved the creation of a Center for Transplant Medicine at UNMC. The center will allow UNMC to build on its transplant research and education and is expected to help draw in more federal research money.

Among the center’s focuses: innovative approaches to treating patients with organ failure, including cellular and organ replacement therapies.

Reach Melissa Lee at 473-2682 or mlee@journalstar.com.


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Whos paying for this one wrote on September 5, 2008 7:21 pm:
" The taxpayer, the foundation, the athletic department or the alumni association? "

 Kerri wrote on September 5, 2008 8:09 pm:
" While this is good news for the community, the location may not be as exciting. Location and proximity to our existing hospitals is important so nursing students do not have to waste time commuting. If leadership can see a sports triangle in the Haymarket area, why can't they see the need for a "health triangle"? Where is a vision for integration of learning and community? "

 Location wrote on September 5, 2008 8:37 pm:
" It's not that far to either Bryan East or St. Elizabeth's. Ten minutes, tops. That isn't a "commute." "

 Jessie wrote on September 5, 2008 9:17 pm:
" Nursing is about caring. First we should care for the students. Life as a student is busy and days are full. It might not seem like allot to the chancellor, but there are advantages in having students near to major institutions like Madonna, Tabitha, Bryan LGH, St. E’s, along with the other fine private hospitals. East campus is an isolated location and the existing institutions won’t move their locations so the Nursing School is better place near where the “action of healthcare” is. If this is about build another building as an academic factory with the widgets being nurses, Perlman got it right. If it is taking a 21st century approach, he and the mayor, and a few administrators should be coming up with a better plan. "

 Larry wrote on September 5, 2008 10:01 pm:
" It does seem odd that the Innovation Park had to be close to city campus. Meanwhile a different logic was taken for this location. East Campus? Did the Regents consider some of the instructors might also have to have jobs at one of the hospitals to support themselves? It is not just the location of the building, but where the building functions in a city’s professional geography that matters. Kind of like, but deeper than, “ The house on the sketches had been designed not by Roark, but by the cliff on which it stood. It was as if the cliff had grown and completed itself and proclaimed the purpose for which it had been waiting" "

 R.N. B.S.N. wrote on September 5, 2008 10:13 pm:
" As a UNL/ UNMC College of Nursing Grad, this is excellent news. In regards to the concern about location, nursing is academic as well as clinical. Nursing involves research that lends itself perfectly to the University setting. Clinical experiences will remain in the hospitals, study and research will find its appropriate home on East Campus. "

 good move wrote on September 5, 2008 10:26 pm:
" Good move all around. There is going to be a huge shortage of nurses in Nebraska, and the U.S. as a whole. It's good to see a proactive move! "

 Ed wrote on September 6, 2008 12:51 am:
" The United States is in the midst of a nursing shortage that is expected to intensify as baby boomers age and the need for health care grows. Compounding the problem is the fact that nursing colleges and universities across the country are struggling to expand enrollment levels to meet the rising demand for nursing care. This is a reactive, not proactive step and is welcomed. Too, it is unfortunate a major civic health campus isn't in the works. NU got it right when they initiated this in downtown Lincoln near the city campus. "

 Collaborative Potential wrote on September 6, 2008 8:40 am:
" After watching Stand Up, a collaboration between the television networks to raise money to fight cancer, I better understand the call for closer ties between community, academia, and private matters to rebuild our broken health care system. UNL often acts in a unilateral manner that does offer benefits to the community, but those efforts might not be fully optimized Yes, nursing schools do research, but we too have Rns who have families and would love to participate in research projects. We have nurses who might find an advanced degree easier to pursue if it were not across town. Yes, there is an energy component too, we must develop civic initiatives that are developing critical mass to make health care more effective and efficient. The arena project brought UNL and community together for a project. We cannot say we get the innovation park concept and not apply it to an area as critical as that of our medical and health care applications, research and development, and education. Why does it work for a sports initiative, or an engineering initiative, but not health care?
Support for the nursing school is welcomed, but again, federal, state, community and UNL should be working together to form a more perfect union, a more perfect opportunity for students and health care professionals to interact close in proximity, close in missions. To close in on and eliminate problems that affect all of us. "

 Sara wrote on September 6, 2008 8:53 am:
" Proximity, we heard people argue, was important for the innovation park v. location of reaearch park in the state fair case. One would imagine proximity to health care institutions would also be as dynamic a rationale to bring research, physicians, acadmics, patients, and yes nurses together. "

 Solution to Shortage wrote on September 6, 2008 10:04 am:
" Perhaps if medical centers would treat nurses better and pay them what they are worth, there would not be a shortage. "

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